RYDER CUP:RORY MCILROY, who has shrugged off the effects of an injured finger he incurred while moving into his new house outside Belfast last week, will have a couple of things on his mind when he resumes tournament play in this week's Omega European Masters at Crans in Switzerland.
Firstly, he will be targeting a second win of the season on a course where he lost out in a play-off to Jean-Francois Lucquin a year ago; and, secondly, he will be aiming to kick-start his bid for a place on Europe’s Ryder Cup team next year.
The European Masters will commence the 12-month long qualifying process to find the nine automatic places on Colin Montgomerie’s team, with the team captain selecting three “wild cards” – an increase of one on those available to Nick Faldo – after the final counting event in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Gleneagles next August 29th.
For now, McIlroy’s main focus is to go one better at Crans than he did a year ago.
“I absolutely love Crans, it is one of my favourite venues of the year. If I can play the way I did last year, then I’ll be in with a great chance.
“I feel that I’m a better player now than I was last year and I’ve gained a lot of experience, so I’d like to think I can go very close.”
This will be McIlroy’s first outing since his tied-third place finish in the USPGA championship at Hazeltine although he had a slight scare in his off-time when slicing the third finger on his left hand in helping with the move into his newly-acquired home. However, he doesn’t believe it will have any effect on his game this week.
McIlroy is one of eight Irish players (along with Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Shane Lowry, Michael Hoey, Gary Murphy and Gareth Maybin) in the field at Crans.
Europe’s captain Montgomerie – who has withdrawn from the event due to fatigue – makes the point that everyone will be “starting from scratch” in their bids to make the team.
Like McIlroy, McDowell – who made such an impressive Ryder Cup debut in Valhalla last year, albeit on the losing team – will also be competing for the first time since he secured a top-10 finish in the USPGA.
McDowell spent last week practising in Portugal along with his coach Clive Tucker and caddie Ken Comboy before heading directly to Crans for the start of the new Ryder Cup qualifying campaign.
The qualifying campaign has been amended this year, at the request of Montgomerie, with only nine players earning automatic places on the team (compared to 10 in previous years) off the world points list and the European qualifying table.
Four of those players who played in Valhalla – McDowell, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Lee Westwood and Oliver Wilson – are scheduled to play in Switzerland.
